The leak originated from an out-of-service fuel tank at the harbor master’s office. Clean up efforts are underway, and the city plans to monitor the situation over the next few months.
The City of Dillingham discovered an oil spill at the harbor master’s office Wednesday afternoon. An estimated 60 gallons leaked out, according to the city and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The leak originated from a 300 gallon tank at the harbor master’s office that was out of service. Case Manager Lucas Ellis, with the state, said Bristol Alliance Fuels filled the wrong tank with 200 gallons of fuel.
“There’s a valve that was not completely secured," he said. "There was a slow leak that took time to discover. As I understand there is a layer of ice and snow on top of that. Seems like contamination collected there. At this point, the contaminated snow and surrounding snow was collected.”
The spill was limited to a 5-by-5 foot area. The city dug up the contaminated snow and moved it to containers, and it’s working to separate the snow from the fuel.
The city used absorbents to clean up any residual fuel.
Ellis said the city plans to monitor the situation over the next few months.
“They’re looking into a couple environmental contractors to do some sampling in the spring to make sure there was no contamination that they were missing,” he said.
The City and Bristol Alliance Fuels drained around 140 gallons of fuel from that tank after the spill was discovered. The city confirmed Thursday that there is no smell of fuel in the office or outside near the initial spill. At this time, there is no threat of ground water contamination by the harbor master's office.
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